The Bromance Book Club - Lyssa Kay Adams Page 0,32
his own shirt and waved at a washboard that put Gavin’s to shame. “Clean livin’.” Mack smirked, returning to his heart-happy omelet. “Try it.”
“Fuck off, ’Roid Rage. You ate an entire pizza by yourself Saturday night.”
Malcolm looked at Del. “Are they always like this?”
Del sighed. “Always.”
Yan looked at Gavin. “What are her conditions?”
Gavin let out a long breath and launched into the list. When he finished, even Mack was sympathetic. “Damn, dude. She really won’t let you say I love you? That’s harsh.”
“How the hell am I supposed to win her back if I’m sleeping in another room and can’t tell her how I feel?”
“Yeah, and if there’s no . . .” Mack made the universal sign for sex—he poked his finger in and out of a circle he made with his other hand.
“You’re looking at this all wrong,” Malcolm said. “This is an opportunity.”
“How?”
“She all but dared you to figure her out, to truly learn her language. If she doesn’t want you to say I love you with those words, you’ll have to learn another way to express it, one that she’ll accept.”
“I don’t even know where to start.”
“We do,” Del said. Then the guys all spoke at once. “Backstory.”
“What the fuck is backstory?”
“Everything, man,” Mack said. “Backstory is everything.”
“It means that whatever happened to your wife before she met you plays a role in who she is today,” Malcolm said. “We are all the sum total of our experiences at any given time, and our reactions to things are shaped by them. Just like in romance novels. Whatever a character went through before the start of the book will eventually determine how they react to things that happen in the book.”
“But we’re talking about my real life here. Not a book.”
“Same principles apply,” Malcolm said. “That’s why fiction resonates with people. It speaks to universal truths.”
Gavin’s food arrived. He devoured a piece of bacon in two bites. Across the table, Mack puffed out his cheeks and made a round gesture over his stomach, so Gavin ate a second piece with a deliberate glare.
“Tell us about Thea’s childhood,” Malcolm said.
The bacon turned to a rock in Gavin’s stomach. “She doesn’t like to talk about it. She always used to change the subject when I would try to get her to talk.”
“So it was a bad childhood?” Yan prodded.
“Her dad’s an asshole, and her mom is a classic narcissist. They got divorced when Thea was ten. She and her sister had to live with their grandma for a few years because neither parent wanted them.”
“Didn’t want them? What does that mean?” Del asked.
“Her father remarried pretty quickly after the divorce, and his new wife didn’t want the girls to live with them, and her mom was just too selfish to want the responsibility.” Gavin ate a quick bite. “I found out last night that her dad is getting remarried again for, like, the fourth time in a couple of weeks.”
The guys all met one another’s gazes with a stunned expression. Del spoke. “You didn’t know this?”
“No.”
“When did Thea find out?”
“Not sure. She found out that he was getting a divorce from his third wife last spring, but I think the wedding invitation only arrived in the past couple of weeks while I’ve been gone.”
Del leaned forward. “How does Thea feel about it?”
“She’s not going to the wedding, if that’s what you mean.”
“Did she say why?”
Gavin tried to recall that part of the conversation from last night. “She said there’s no point because he’s just going to cheat on this one and leave her too.”
The guys stared at him.
He blinked. “What?”
Mack snorted. “You are some kind of stupid.”
“You think her dad’s wedding has something to do with Thea letting me move home?”
Del smacked the back of his head. “No, dumbass. It has something to do with her kicking you out in the first place.”
Gavin opened his mouth to protest but then shut it. He couldn’t argue without revealing the embarrassing truth about what actually led to him leaving.
“And not wanting you to say I love you?” Yan continued. “Of course she doesn’t trust those words, Gavin. When has she ever been shown that love is reliable, that it can last, that it can be trusted?”
“Words don’t matter, Gavin,” Mack said, uncharacteristically sober. “Actions do. And if she’s skittish from her childhood, then it doesn’t matter how many times you say the words to her. You made her doubt your love when you left.”